{"id":97871,"date":"2025-02-20T15:07:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T20:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/?post_type=survivor-stories&#038;p=97871"},"modified":"2025-02-25T09:51:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T14:51:36","slug":"emeregency-preparedness-on-a-boat","status":"publish","type":"survivor-stories","link":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/survivor-stories\/emeregency-preparedness-on-a-boat\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescued at Sea: Five Survivors Saved by Coast Guard After Boat Sinks off Mississippi Gulf Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On May 26, 2024, my crew and I participated in the annual <a href=\"https:\/\/marywalkermarina.com\/events\/\">Mary Walker Marina Snapper Showdown<\/a> on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We were on a 28-foot fishing boat, and everything seemed fine at first. Unfortunately just 17 miles from Petit Bois Island, disaster struck\u2014the boat sank. Very fast. There wasn\u2019t even enough time to put on life jackets. We were left in cold, choppy water with no boat and no way to signal for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luckily, Connor remembered that his girlfriend had packed an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/products\/resqlink-400\/?ads_cmpid=22138562292&amp;ads_adid=&amp;ads_matchtype=&amp;ads_network=x&amp;ads_creative=&amp;utm_term=&amp;ads_targetid=&amp;utm_campaign=&amp;utm_source=adwords&amp;utm_medium=ppc&amp;ttv=2&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMInvK4yobfiwMVSAMMAh3txwvPEAAYASAAEgKA7_D_BwE\">ACR ResQlink 400<\/a> Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) for him at the last minute. He had it in his bag, but with the boat sinking so fast, it was the only thing we could access. Connor activated it just before entering the water, and that beacon became our lifeline. The sinking boat made the flares inaccessible, leaving the PLB as the only thing that saved us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We spent five long hours in the water, freezing, cramping, and starting to lose hope. But when we saw the Coast Guard approaching, we knew we would make it. Looking back, we realize we had all the right safety gear\u2014life jackets, flares, and the PLB\u2014but we hadn\u2019t stored everything properly. We couldn\u2019t easily reach the flares, and that could\u2019ve cost us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve all learned a big lesson from this experience: no matter how experienced you are, things can go wrong fast. We thought we were prepared, but negligence nearly defeated us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there\u2019s one thing, I want fellow boaters to take away from our story, it\u2019s this: Safety isn\u2019t optional. Make sure everyone on board knows where the emergency gear is, how to use it, and that it\u2019s easily accessible. We were lucky, but it could\u2019ve been much worse. Don\u2019t wait until it\u2019s too late\u2014be prepared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If there\u2019s one thing, I want fellow boaters to take away from our story, it\u2019s this: Safety isn\u2019t optional. Make sure everyone on board knows where the emergency gear is, how to use it, and that it\u2019s easily accessible. We were lucky, but it could\u2019ve been much worse. Don\u2019t wait until it\u2019s too late\u2014be prepared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245859,"featured_media":97872,"template":"","survivor-category":[11],"terrain":[22],"survivor-event":[],"survivor-cause":[49],"survivor-rescue":[137],"class_list":["post-97871","survivor-stories","type-survivor-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","survivor-category-boating","terrain-ocean","survivor-cause-boat-sinking","survivor-rescue-coast-guard"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories\/97871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/survivor-stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"survivor-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-category?post=97871"},{"taxonomy":"terrain","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/terrain?post=97871"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-event?post=97871"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-cause","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-cause?post=97871"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-rescue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-rescue?post=97871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}